Customer Reviews

Airborne Forces at War

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I expected a coffee table book with some nice pictures; this is much, much more. The endorsement of the Association of the US Army (AUSA) really means something, and we have here a definitive history of US airborne and airmobile forces, from the Parachute Test Platoon right up to the present day. It's not a traditional style military history, so much as it is a history of force composition, doctrine and employment, complete with cameos of important airborne personalities and thinkers, and brief overviews of representative engagements. The airborne role in all the major deployments in and since WW II is touched upon, with the emphasis on significant innovations. I've jumped from big birds and stumbled out of choppers, and find this to be my so-far favorite airborne/airmobile overview and lookback.

This deeply researched volume with excellent photographs is very highly recommended to students of warfare in the 20th Century. The authors trace the evolution of airborne units in the U.S. Army and in the process provide the rationale for changes in organization. Clearly, much of what they say is based on original manuscript sources. My only regret is that the publisher's format apparently did not allow the authors to include footnotes.

AIRBORNE FORCES AT WAR: FROM PARACHUTE TEST PLATOON TO THE 21ST CENTURY
ROBERT K. WRIGHT, JR. AND JOHN T. GREENWOOD
NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS, 2007
HARDCOVER, $39.95, 214 PAGES, MAPS, PHOTOGRAPHS, CHARTS, DRAWINGS


"Where is the Prince who can afford so to cover his country with troops for its defense, as that ten thousand men descending from the clouds, might not, in many places, do an infinite deal of mischief before a force could be brought together to repel them?" So wrote one of America's "Founding Fathers," Benjamin Franklin in 1784, in a remarkably futuristic vision of warfare by balloon. In France in 1918, another visionary, General Billy Mitchell, convinced General Pershing to begin plans to drop an entire division of troops from bombers to take the fortress city of Metz from the air. The war ended before the plans could take shape. But curiously enough, the officer assigned the task of studying this project was Lewis Brereton, who would lead the U.S. airborne force a quarter century later.

When the idea of airborne troops was revived some 20 years later, the initial debate focused on who would actually train and command the force. The U.S. Army's Chief of Infantry proposed the creation of a small air infantry force in March, 1939 as the "Marines of the Air Corps," or "air grenadiers." The engineers argued that they should be placed under their control since their primary mission initially was seen as rear area demolition and sabotage. The War Department's G-3 section wanted them placed under their control as a strategic reserve of the general headquarters. The Army Air Corps wanted them placed under their control since their aircraft would be an integral part in the operations.

The startling success of German paratroopers at Eban Emael in Belgium in May, 1940 made clear the potential of airborne forces and helped ensure the establishment of a counterpart organization in the U.S. Army In August, 1940, the U.S. Army General Staff finally decided to leave the new "air infantry forces" under the Chief of Infantry. A test platoon was formed at Fort Benning in June, 1940, expanded to a battalion in September, 1940. Later German operations, such as the airborne assault on Crete in May, 1941, suggested that airborne forces could conduct missions much more substantial than mere airborne raids. The U.S. Army absorbed these lessons and the infant airborne force expanded rapidly following the U.S. entry into the war in December, 1941.

In March, 1942, the Provisional Parachute Group at Fort Benning became a formal part of the Army Ground Forces (AGF) as the new Airborne Command. Colonel William C. Lee, who had been instrumental in the formation of the first U.S. airborne units, headed this organization. By the summer of 1942, the Airborne Command had four principal units: three paracgute infantry regiments (501st,502nd, and 503rd) and one airborne (glider) infantry regiment (88th). Equally important, in April, 1942, the Army Air Corps formed the Air Transport Command responsible for the delivery of parachute troops, airborne infantry, and glider units. At the time, three methods of airborne delivery were considered viable: parachute, glider, and airborne landing. The presumption was that paratroopers would be used in any operation as the spearhead to seize a landing zone for gliders or an enemy airstrip for air landing troops. The idea of air landing infantry troops behind enemy lines at a captured airfield was based on the German use of the tactic on Crete in 1941, and the idea of glider landings was inspired both by Eben Emael and Crete. The U.S. airborne didn't have a centralized command structure comparable to the German XI Flegerkorps, which combined both the air transport formations and air landing troops under a single tactical organization. This was made simpler by the fact that both elements were part of the Luftwaffe, while in the American case the two elements were divided between the Army Air Corps and the Army Ground Forces. Although various schemes were put forward to better coordinate these two commands, the substantial difficulties of raising and training the new formations, as well as inter-service rivalries, diverted attention from this issue.

This book, AIRBORNE FORCES AT WAR: FROM PARACHUTE TEST PLATOON TO THE 21ST CENTURY is an illustrated survey of the airborne forces of the U.S. Army from inception to the present day. It focuses on airborne units who used parachutes and gliders in service of the nation. It presents highlights of combat actions and peacetime developments involving airborne units.

But as with any book covering such a topic, there is going to be some mistakes and omissions. There is no mention made of Operation NORDWIND, the German offensive operation conducted after the Battle of the Bulge. Some U.S. Army units that had participated in that campaign found themselves later in Operation NORDWIND. One of the units was the 101st Airborne Division. Another omission was that during the early stages of the Vietnam War build-up, the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne (Separate) had the highest operational tempo of any combat unit in South Vietnam from August, 1965 through June, 1966. A clarification is in order in that First Lieutenant Carpenter's DSC was originally to have been the Medal of Honor. But it was downgraded to the DSC because of complaints from paratroopers and their families to members of the U.S. Congress when he called in an air strike (that didn't need to be done) and it killed and wounded some of the paratroopers.

The U.S. Army paratroopers and glider infantry performed admirably from their first combat in World War II. Their descendants have continued the tradition of exemplary service. The airborne units of today build upon the heritage, and constitute a potent element of national power in the 21st Century.



Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida